Application of liquid chromatography to the simultaneous determination of acetylsalicylic acid, caffeine, codeine, paracetamol, pyridoxine, and thiamine in pharmaceutical preparations.

This paper describes a rapid reversed-phase liquid chromatographic method, with UV detection, for the simultaneous determination of acetylsalicylic acid, caffeine, codeine, paracetamol, pyridoxine, and thiamine in pharmaceutical preparations. A reversed-phase C18 Nucleosil column is used. The mobile phase consists of 2 successive eluants: water (5 min) and acetonitrile-water (75 + 25, v/v; 9 min), both adjusted to pH 2.1 with phosphoric acid. Before determination acetylsalicylic acid is completely converted to salicylic acid by alkaline hydrolysis. Salicylic acid, caffeine, paracetamol, pyridoxine, and thiamine are all detected at 285 nm, whereas codeine is detected at 240 nm. Calibration curves were linear for salicylic acid, caffeine, paracetamol, and pyridoxine in the range of 50-500 mg/L, and for codeine and thiamine in the range of 50-1000 mg/L. The method was applied to the analysis of 13 fortified commercial pharmaceutical preparations. Recoveries ranged from 92.6 to 105.5%, with relative standard deviations of 1.1-5.8%.